Roger Ailes Says He’s Just Not That Crazy

Fox News president Roger Ailes wrote a remarkably in-depth e-mail to Politico disputing Jonathan Alter’s portrayal of him in his book, The Center Holds: Obama and his Enemies. Alter, using Fox News sources, described a paranoid executive who uses a special side entrance at Fox, is escorted into the building by two bodyguards, and who News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch “routinely” calls “cuckoo,” “bonkers,” “nuts,” and “crazy.” Ailes is having none of it: “Murdoch occasionally says I’m paranoid, and I point out to him that if I wasn’t A LITTLE paranoid he’d have 20 percent less money,” he writes. As for the side entrance, “this is the same entrance used by Rupert Murdoch, most of our talent and guests.” And the bodyguards? “I don’t have two bodyguards, I have one part-time bodyguard.” So there. Just a littleparanoid.